Hebrew: ארגון Irgun • Etzel | |
---|---|
Active | 1931–1949 |
Disbanded | 12 January 1949 |
Country | Yishuv, Mandatory Palestine Israel |
Type | Paramilitary (pre-independence) Unified armed forces (post-independence) |
Engagements | Arab Revolt in Palestine World War II Jewish Revolt in Palestine |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Avraham Tehomi, Menachem Begin |
The Irgun (Hebrew: ארגון; full title: Hebrew: הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל HaIrgun HaTzvaʾi Ha-Leumi b-Eretz Israel, lit. "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel"), or Etzel (Hebrew: אצ״ל) (sometimes abbreviated IZL), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah (Hebrew: Hebrew: הגנה, Defence).[1] The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.[2][3][4][5]
The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky.[6] Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.
The organization committed acts of terrorism against Palestinian Arabs, as well as against the British authorities, who were regarded as illegal occupiers.[7] In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper;[8][9] as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry,[10][11] the 1946 Zionist Congress[12] and the Jewish Agency.[13] Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".[14]
Following the establishment of the State of Israel during the 1948 Palestine war, the Irgun began to be absorbed into the newly created Israel Defense Forces. Conflict between the Irgun and the IDF escalated into the 1948 Altalena affair, and the Irgun formally disbanded on January 12, 1949. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party.[15] Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.
SshmidtFCPRIOT
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).One of the main developments in the initial period of the State was the growth of the Herut party.... It developed from the older Revisionist groups, the 'terrorist' groups of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and members of the Revisionist party ... in 1965 Herut founded, together with the great part of the Liberals, a parliamentary bloc ... in 1973, with the addition of other small groups, it became transformed into Likud